That’s what  NBC 5′s Ward Room columnist, Edward McClelland, calls Chicago Parking Meters, LLC,  the company which controls the city’s 30,000 metered parking spaces.

In a recent column, McClelland calls CPM a “parasitic business.”

McClelland, references a recent Salon piece by political commentator Michael Lind:

Lind was criticizing what he called the Rentier class — financiers who make money not by selling goods and services, but by “their natural or artificial monopoly power to extract excessive tolls, fees and other recurrent payments from the rest of society, including productive businesses.”

The typical rich American, Lind argued, “should be an innovative industrialist or technologist, not a Wall Street financier or a guy with a parking-meter monopoly.”

McClelland wholeheartedly agrees with Lind saying the 75-year lease for $1.16 billion is essentially a monopoly which CPM will exploit to the tune of billions of dollars over the term of the agreement.

While some of what Lind and McClelland say is undoubtedly true, their blame is completely misplaced.

Companies exist to maximize profit for their owners or investors. For the two writers to be surprised when a company like CPM behave in this way is naive and nonsensical.

Their ire should be directed at former Mayor Richard Daley, his administration and the alderman who voted for the crappy parking meter lease deal in the first place–not CPM for finding and executing a lucrative business deal.

Here’s McClelland’s full piece, “Chicago Parking Meters LLC, Parasitic “Business”.

This includes lots located at 4519 N. Lincoln (Lincoln Square), 1938 W. Monterey, 417 E.75th and 1130 W. Lawrence (Uptown).

The parking lots began being worked on Monday, August 22nd and will re-open between Thursday and next Tuesday, August 30th.

For more information, check the Chicago Meters website for all the details and specific schedules.

One of 72 newly installed multi-space parking meter stands lonely and unused in a desolate area of the South Side

Nostalgic types might consider it a sad day when the last of Chicago’s old fashioned single head parking meters got replaced in late spring in a desolate section of the near South Side.

Chicago Parking Meters, LLC recently installed over 70 pay and display machines in June, after removing the city’s last remaining single head meters a few weeks previous. But the area, roughly bounded by Ashland & Damen, between 15th and 13th has plenty of spaces to park, but with no one actually parking there.

But perhaps what is most interesting is that CPM was forced to spend over $400,000 to install expensive, cutting edge parking meter pay boxes for several thousand metered spaces, in an area that will never generate enough revenue for CPM to ever see a return on their investment there.

Lease Deal Says CPM Must Upgrade All Parking Meters

One of the few upsides to the Chicago’s universally reviled parking meter lease deal was that the new lessee for the city’s 36,000+ metered parking system must replace all the old fashioned single head meters with multispace payboxes.

The city insisted in the privatization agreement that these new payboxes allowed drivers to pay using debit and credit cards in addition to quarters and in some cases dollar coins.

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners or Chicago Parking Meters, LLC as they are now known, did not have to replace all the single head meters right away. They were given time to make sure all metered spaces had this electronic payment option.

Impressively, CPM via LAZ Parking, switched over the majority of the system in just a few months back in 2009.

However, a handful of single head meters still existed until just recently.

This was made apparent in June, when CPM removed a few thousands of single head meters near the University of Illinois Medical District.

For some logic defying reason, the city installed these meters along blocks and blocks of vacant lots in 2008 where perhaps a car or two would park over the course of a day. Allegedly, the meters kept people from abandoning cars in this forlorn area completely devoid of homes, people, buildings, businesses or any sort of commerce.

And why would anyone pay for parking when the metered blocks are surrounded by several blocks where payment is not required?

Nobody Parking…Ever

Despite the parking meters, no cars ever seem to be parked in this essentially deserted area, but there was no way to objectively measure meter usage–until the new pay and display units were installed.

So, The Expired Meter decided to try an experiment.

The payboxes print out a receipt for each transaction that must be displayed on a vehicle’s dashboard to prove the driver has paid for parking. On each receipt a sequential transaction number prints out to further validate payment has occurred.

On June 13th, three pay boxes were randomly selected. One on 14th Street close to Damen, another on Wood Street, and a final pay box on 14th Street closer to Ashland Avenue.

In each, a quarter was deposited and a meter receipt was generated. Since the units had just been installed, each receipt displayed a very low number. The number 003 was listed on two of the receipts and 005 on a third. The assumption was the previous few transactions were test prints made by the technician(s) who installed the units.

Over five weeks later, we returned and repeated the quarter plunking process on the same three machines.

Incredibly, what all three receipts showed was not one other driver had paid for parking at all three meters in the subsequent five weeks. In fact, the last two transactions at all three meters were made by our research team.

Our researchers also determined that no less than 72 pay boxes were recently installed in this general area, with essentially no vehicles paying to use the metered spaces.

Consider that on the low end, these pay boxes manufactured by Florida based Cale Parking USA cost $6000 each. Multiply it out and conservatively  CPM spent about $430,000 for these 72 pay boxes.

These parking meter pay boxes see so little use, if each of the 72 pay boxes bring in a dollar a month, it will take close to 500 years to see a cover the out of pocket expense for the units. Even if you generously calculate the revenue at $1.50 per machine per week, the 75 year long lease would be over before these meters actually made a return on investment.

Perhaps this is a case of one of the few upsides Mayor Daley’s  hated parking meter lease deal. At least the taxpayers are not on the hook for this close to half million dollar outlay–at least not directly.

This website reached out via email to CPM’s spokesperson to find out why the company would invest so heavily in erecting expensive parking meters in an area where no one parks, but received no response.

So, while Chicago drivers have to endure the daily and painful reminder of how terrible Chicago’s parking meter lease deal turned out, perhaps some drivers will get a tiny bit of satisfaction from seeing the immense cash outlay for the world’s loneliest parking meters.

The late May weather in Chicago was beautiful when LAZ Parking, on behalf of Chicago Parking Meters, LLC was finishing installing hundreds of electronic, multi-space pay and display units downtown Chicago.

But just days after installing the units about 250 of the pay boxes just stopped working. Panicked drivers didn’t know what to do. Parking Enforcement Aides and other ticket writers were instructed to cease ticketing. The city lost thousands of dollars in ticket revenue that day and the Daley Administration, CPM and LAZ were all deservedly red-faced.

Incredibly, this story has come back to haunt Cale Parking USA, the manufacturer of Chicago’s pay and display parking meter machines in a bid for a contract in Oklahoma City, OK according to a story by The Oklahoman newspaper.

Oklahoma City, ironically the historical birthplace of the parking meter, is looking to install 235 new multi-space units in the city’s downtown. Cale, one of six initial bidders, has received the initial nod for the contract, but still face a review before the deal can be sealed.

City officials behind the Cale bid claimed “the meters were well received when installed in Chicago,” according to the piece.

But the newspaper’s writers did a little bit of research and came across the story of the “Massive Meter Meltdown and in addition found out about a story this website broke about hundreds of pay boxes freezing up for two or three days.

The newspaper did forget about the Cale units not keeping accurate time for a while, but since then there have been no major snafus.

However, it seems these new revelations about Cale’s product have delayed a decision on the contract by the board reviewing the proposed contract.

Read the full story at the NewsOK website, “Proposed downtown Oklahoma City parking meters have troubled past and face an uncertain future.”

ParkMagic's in-car parking meter

Just over four years after Chicago’s Department of Revenue announced its ground breaking pay-by-phone,  in-car parking meter program to great fanfare, glowing reviews and overwhelming positive user response, the plug was finally pulled on the ParkMagic Chicago pilot program just over two weeks ago.

An e-mail from ParkMagic to its remaining users from the pilot program went out July 8th saying in part, “As you know the ParkMagic Pay by Cell parking system has been in pilot phase with the City of Chicago over the past two years and this phase is now complete.”

It was back in June of 2007, when the DOR debuted the blue and silver in-car meters in a pilot program limited to 1000 initial users. The first units were snapped up in less than a week, and after the first year the program was considered a success by an independent research study showing  a 97.6% positive feedback from the initial 1000 users.

ParkMagic was essentially the parking meter equivalent of the Tollway’s I-Pass unit.

Instead of having to plunk quarters or swipe a debit/credit card into a parking  meter, drivers could use their cell phone to add time to their ParkMagic in-car meter. Worried you’re metered  time is running out because you’re doctor’s appointment is taking too long? Want to enjoy an after dinner drink without having to run back to your car? Dialup your ParkMagic unit and add some more time.

But a funny thing happened on the way to rolling out the program citywide and making it available to all drivers–Chicago’s infamous parking meter lease deal got in the way.

In retrospect, the writing was on the wall as early as August of 2008, when ParkMagic was scheduled to release 2000 more in-car meters to the public. Mayor Daley’s office was pushing through the bidding process for the meter lease deal, and after a news report at this website on the new units, the Department of Revenue reneged on the release of new units according to city sources with intimate knowledge of the deal.

When the city awarded Chicago’s  parking meter concession  in December, 2008,  ParkMagic had a new point of contact– Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.  Since then, according to sources, high level managers of LAZ Parking (which manages CPM’s street operations) Chicago Parking Meters and ParkMagic had numerous meetings on potentially expanding the pay-by-phone program.

The program languished for two and a half years with no decision to roll out the program citywide or just kill it.  Finally, after years of  discussions, and  despite the great response to the state of the art program, despite the thousands of drivers on the waiting list for their own unit and despite a tech savvy society hungry to  embrace this type of convenient cell phone based technology, the program was finally taken off life support.

“Chicago Parking Meters and Park Magic’s pilot program for payment of curbside parking in Chicago has expired,” says CPM spokesperson Avis LaVelle via email. “Chicago Parking Meters (CPM) would like to thank Park Magic and the pilot program participants for their cooperation as we research ways to better serve the parking public.”

ParkMagic users with a cash balance are being issued refunds according to LaVelle.

At least one Chicago driver is sad to see the end of ParkMagic’s service.

“Absolutely!” said Sabrina Deitch when asked if she was going to miss using ParkMagic. “I didn’t have to hunt down a machine to pay.”

Deitch, who’s lived in the city for 20 years and used her unit as the primary method for paying metered parking, really enjoyed the convenience of the service.

“If I was waiting in line and my time was ending, I could easily pay without having to leave the place I was at to do so,” explained Deitch. “If my movie ran long, if dinner took longer than I thought, if the store lines were long- anything- when I was with kids I wouldn’t have to worry about them when I went to pay the machine.”

While the future of ParkMagic in Chicago seems uncertain at best, but both ParkMagic and CPM are implying  the door is still open to re-starting the program in the future.

“Chicago Parking Meters continues to assess the merits of the Park Magic system as well as other cashless payment options to provide the most convenient and reliable system for Chicago,” says LaVelle.

“We are working to an agreed project schedule and in order to implement the full sale city wide roll out of the ParkMagic system it has been decided to defer the service availability while Chicago Parking Meters finalize the expansion plan with the City of Chicago Parking Authority,” the email from ParkMagic claims. “The details of the official launch date will be issued to you in due course. However should you have any questions/queries regarding the service etc. you may contact our customer service center.”

But emails to, and voice mails left with ParkMagic were not returned and select phone numbers for ParkMagic’s corporate office have been disconnected, are now assigned to other businesses or go directly to voice mail.

It is also possible that CPM will end up adopting a completely different pay-by-phone service. According to industry sources, CPM is said to be considering alternative pay-by-phone services.

While Chicago, the nation’s third largest parking meter system, has seemingly abandoned pay-by-phone parking meter technology, nationwide many large American cities are rapidly moving to embrace this mobile technology. Washington D.C. just announced its adopting the ParkMobile service, a company which also provides Atlanta with their service. Miami has had Verrus’ service for a few years, while San Francisco and Portland are testing the technology.

Calls and emails to Chicago’s Department of Revenue seeking comment were not returned.

This revelation came back in March, when Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) was meeting with bike riders to discuss different pro-cycling initiatives after Moreno uttered a naughty word toward LAZ Parking the on the street face of Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, according to Chicago’s bicycle news correspondent John Greenfield in TimeOut Chicago.

Asked how meter lessee LAZ Parking would react to the loss of revenue if car spaces were removed, Moreno responded, “Fuck ’em.” The crowd of cyclists went wild.

According to the piece, Moreno working with CDOT to have on street bike racks installed on Milwaukee Ave. near the intersection of North Ave./Damen that will take out 20 feet of automobile street parking.

Moreno’s also considering installing a segregated bike lane along Milwaukee Ave. from California to Division.

While the on-street bike racks may take out two parking spaces, the dedicated bike lanes proposed by Moreno would take out hundreds of parking spots. Taking out these spots would potentially cost the city millions of dollars in compensation per the parking meter lease agreement unless Moreno and the city can find new locations for these displaced parking spots.

Here’s Greenfield’s full story, “Chicago’s first on-street bike parking.”

Break out the quarters, meter rates are going up

While officially, Chicago’s increased parking meter rates kicked in at midnight New Year’s Day, it could take four or more weeks for all of Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters to be converted to the new, higher rates according to a spokesperson for Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.

“The transition to the new rates will begin on January 2nd, starting with the Loop and moving outward into the neighborhoods,” explains CPM spokesperson Avis LaVelle via e-mail. “Weather conditions permitting, the goal is to complete the transition in January.”

Because of the relatively small number of high priced meters in the Loop, most likely all these pay boxes will be switched over to the new rates just in time for motorists to pay the higher hourly rate Monday morning.

While it will take roughly a month for the more modern pay boxes to be changed to the higher rates, it may take an additional week or two to finish changing the several hundred remaining traditional single-head meters.

It’s recommended drivers read all signs and the digital readout on the pay boxes when paying for their metered time. Drivers are only responsible for the posted hourly rate according to LaVelle.

Meter rates are jumping for the third time in three years per Chicago’s parking meter lease deal. Most neighborhood meter rates are rising a quarter from $1.25 per hour to $1.50, with areas adjacent to downtown like Gold Coast, South Loop, River North and parts of Lincoln Park bumping up 50 cents an hour from $2.50 to $3 per hour.

Downtown rates will increase 75 cents an hour from $4.25 to $5.00 per hour, making Chicago’s downtown meter rates the highest in the country, beating out New York City and Los Angeles.

Chicago Parking Meter disputed this fact originally reported by this website by referring to a 2008 study by real estate company Colliers International which reported that Denver, CO, Little Rock, AR, Memphis, TN, Houston, TX and West Palm Beach, FL all had higher downtown parking rates than Chicago’s new rates.

However, the Colliers data is flawed–and dramatically so.

A few internet searches, checks of official city websites and phone calls to each of these cities revealed these five cities have downtown rates ranging from 50 cents an hour (Little Rock) to no more than $1.50 per hour (Houston), drastically lower than the $5.35 to $8.00 per hour rates listed for these cities in the Colliers study.

The meter company has also recently begun a Google Adwords campaign to inform readers of the new rate information linking readers to their website.

The 75 year meter lease deal allows for rate increases for the first five years of the agreement, with potential rate hikes after that tied to inflation. These initial rate hikes end in 2013 with downtown rates topping out at $6.50 per hour.

Do you enjoy spreading pain and misery to your fellow Chicagoans?

Is orange your favorite color?

Than we have a job for you!

Private Parking Enforcement Officer.

That’s right, a job patrolling the mean streets of Chicago writing Chicago parking tickets.

SERCO, a private firm with a multi-million dollar city contract, has been supplementing the Chicago’s already substantial parking enforcement force with non-union parking enforcement personnel for several years.

Often SERCO people work later evening hours the Department of Revenue doesn’t typically staff.

SERCO also has enforcement contracts with the City Clerk’s office to write city sticker violations and more recently became the official enforcement arm of Chicago Parking Meters, LLC.

If you like to walk a lot, have a high school education and enjoy working a job with “Little creativity and latitude is expected,” then this may be the perfect fit for you.

Here’s the job description.

Patrols assigned areas on foot or in a vehicle to enforce parking regulations/restrictions. Issues written and computer generated parking citations and transfers citation data to centralized system. Requires a high school diploma or its equivalent. Has knowledge of commonly used concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field. Relies on instructions and pre-established guidelines to perform the functions of the job. Little creativity and latitude is expected. Works under general supervision. Typically reports to a supervisor or manager.

The only requirements are a high school education or GED, passing a drug test and perhaps most importantly, “Candidates cannot have unpaid parking tickets to the City.”

Maybe what this job has to offer beyond great job satisfaction is the ability to help Mayor Daley fill his multi-million dollar budget gap one $50 ticket at a time.

And perhaps it is good news at least one industry is hiring during this prolonged recession.

You’d better move fast though, with a pay rate of $8.50 per hour, these jobs will be snapped up quickly.

He and a group of his buddies coalesced at the top, looking down at the bottom so far away, trying to screw up the courage to be the first to try it.

“You go first,” my son’s friend said.

That’s what little children say to each other when there’s something new to try or experience.

If the first kid survives that new challenge, the rest will follow. If something bad happens, the others adjust their behavior.

Chicago was the first city to take that leap of faith in privatizing it’s parking meter system.

By every account, except for Mayor Daley and his administration, Chicago made a lot of mistakes in leasing it’s 36,000 plus space parking meter system.

Now, according to a recent report by Bloomberg News, other city’s following Chicago’s lead, are using our city’s failings to insure they negotiate a more favorable meter lease deal for their municipality.

Bloomberg’s report focuses in on Los Angeles (which is still developing it’s plan) along with Pittsburgh (with a deal that seems to be on hold) and Indianapolis (which just approved it’s new meter lease deal).

In all three cases, each of these three cities rejected the worst ideas from Chicago’s privatization debacle.

In the meantime, Chicagoans look forward to a meter price increase on January 1st, and 73 more years of our wonderful meter lease deal.

Next time, let’s make someone else go first.

Here’s Bloomberg’s full story, “Morgan Stanley Chicago Parking Makes Cities Redo Deals.”

A few less parking tickets got issued in Chicago Wednesday.

A vehicle operated by LAZ Parking and marked with “Parking Enforcement”,  was involved in a fender bender accident in the 3600 block of north Western Avenue late Wednesday afternoon.

The vehicle was apparently transporting three to four individuals armed with hand held computers for issuing parking tickets. Chicago Parking Meters, LLC, the operator of this city’s parking meter system, per the meter lease contract, has the right to conduct their own supplemental enforcement for expired meter violations. The company, resumed enforcement back in June after a 15 month hiatus.

From the damage observed to the front of the vehicle, and an eyewitness account of the position of the vehicles a few minutes after the collision, it seems the vehicle operated by LAZ struck the rear of another car involved in the incident.

Ultimately, the ticket writers never got to their assigned enforcement zones as a flat bed tow truck arrived to remove the LAZ vehicle, seemingly rendered inoperable by the collision, from the roadway.

Thanks to Ross P. for the tip and the photos.